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Several Kamehameha statues honor the monarch who founded the Kingdom of Hawaii. [1]
| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(May 2018) |
Several Kamehameha statues honor the monarch who founded the Kingdom of Hawaii. [1]
The pictured statue stands prominently in front of Aliʻiolani Hale in Honolulu, Hawaii. The statue had its origins in 1878 when Walter M. Gibson, a member of the Hawaiian government at the time, wanted to commemorate the 100-year arrival of Captain Cook to the Hawaiian Islands. The legislature appropriated $10,000 for the project and made Gibson the director of the project, which originally included native Hawaiians but they soon were off the project and Gibson ran the project by himself. Gibson contacted Thomas R. Gould, a Boston sculptor living abroad in Florence, Italy to create the statue. [2] [3] [4]
Gould apparently relied mostly on a bust portrait of an elderly Kamehameha, an engraving of "Tamea-mea" [5] that was a thirdhand copy printed in d'Urville's book (1834). [4] But he was also requested to make the monarch appear as a 45 year-old, at the request of the monument committee. [6] Gould was also provided photographs of Polynesians to assist in the visualization. But due to the fact that Gould was in Italy studying Roman sculpture, he adopted the stance of a Roman general with gesturing hand, spear, and cape are also Roman appropriations for the Hawaiian king. [7] The belt or sash on the statue's waist is a symbolic rendering of the Sacred Sash of Liloa. [8] In 1880, the initial sculpture was sent to Paris, France, to be cast in bronze. [9] To assist Gould in his modeling, photographs of Robert Hoapili Baker (and John Tamatoa Baker, as in the surviving photo) dressed up in Hawaiian regalia (feather cloak, helmet and sash/baldric). [10] [11] [12] [13] [lower-alpha 1]
During this time, David Kalākaua became king and was completing ʻIolani Palace which was his tribute to King Kamehameha I and to be the destination of the statue. The statue was too late for the 100th anniversary, but in 1880, the statue was placed aboard the German barque G. F. Haendel and headed for Hawaii. Near the Falkland Islands the ship wrecked and the statue was thought lost. However, the Hawaiians had insured the statue for $12,000 and a second casting was quickly made. [4] [15]
Before the second statue could be sent, the original was recovered by some Falkland Islanders. They sold it to Capt. Jervis of the EarlofDalhousi for $500, who brought it to Honolulu and sold it to Gibson for $875. The original with minor damages was repaired, and was relocated to the legendary king's birthplace at ʻĀinakea in Kohala on Hawaiʻi Island with the dedication ceremony taking place on May 8, 1883. The statue was moved a short distance in 1912 to its present location at the courthouse Kapaʻau. [16]
The re-ordered copy is the statue that now stands in front of the Aliʻiōlani Hale court building in Honolulu. It had arrived safely in Honolulu aboard the British ship Aberaman on July 31, 1883. [17] [18]
A third replica was commissioned when Hawaii attained statehood and was unveiled in 1969. It stood in the United States Capitol alongside the Father Damien Statue and was the heaviest statue in Statuary Hall, weighing 15,000 pounds. In 2008, shortly after Hawaii-born Barack Obama was nominated as the Democratic Party's candidate for the presidency, the statue was moved from a dark, back row of Statuary Hall to a prominent position in Emancipation Hall in the Capitol's new visitor center.
Another Kamahameha statue resides on the island of Hawaiʻi (known locally as the Big Island). It is stands near downtown Hilo at the north end of the Wailoa River State Recreation Area, where it enjoys a king's view of Hilo Bay. The 14-foot (4.3 m) statue was sculpted by R. Sandrin at the Fracaro Foundry in Vicenza, Italy in 1963 but was not erected on this site and dedicated until June 1997. The statue was originally commissioned for $125,000 by the Princeville Corporation for their resort in Kauai. However, the people of Kauai did not want the statue erected there, as Kauai was never conquered by King Kamehameha I. Hilo, however, was one of the political centers of King Kamehameha I. Consequently, the Princeville Corporation donated the statue to the Big Island of Hawaii via the Kamehameha Schools Alumni Association, East Hawaii Chapter. [19]
The Grand Wailea Resort Hotel & Spa on Maui is the home of a fifth Kamehameha statue. Hawaiian artist, author and historian Herb Kawainui Kane created the nine-and-a-half-foot work, which presides over the entrance of the hotel, facing the porte cochere. It is purported to be the most lifelike representation of the great warrior king. [20]
There was a sixth statue in Las Vegas, NV, along the Strip at the Hawaiian Marketplace. It was removed in January 2014 to make way for a Chili's. [21] It was then moved to Springs Preserve where it became weathered by the harsh desert elements, deemed beyond repair, and disposed. [22]
Every year on or near the June 11 Kamehameha Day holiday, Kamehameha statues are ceremoniously draped in fresh lei fashioned in Hawaiʻi. The event is celebrated in the United States Capitol with traditional hula performances. [23]
The Gould statue can be briefly seen in the opening credits of the original 1960s TV police drama Hawaii Five-O as well as the 2010 series reboot. The statue is also seen multiple times in a three-part series of Sanford and Son when the duo go on a vacation to Hawaii. The statue is seen on a pedestal outside the Hawaii Police Department Headquarters. [24]
Princeville is a 9,000-acre (3,600 ha) unincorporated area mostly consisting of master-planned homes and condos on the north shore of the island of Kauai in Kauai County, Hawaii, United States. The population was 2,158 at the 2010 census, up from 1,698 at the 2000 census.
Kalākaua, sometimes called The Merrie Monarch, was the last king and penultimate monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi, reigning from February 12, 1874, until his death in 1891. Succeeding Lunalilo, he was elected to the vacant throne of Hawaiʻi against Queen Emma. Kalākaua had a convivial personality and enjoyed entertaining guests with his singing and ukulele playing. At his coronation and his birthday jubilee, the hula, which had hitherto been banned in public in the kingdom, became a celebration of Hawaiian culture.
Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole was a prince of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi until it was overthrown by a coalition of American and European businessmen in 1893. He later went on to become a representative in the Territory of Hawaii as delegate to the United States Congress, and as such is the only royal-born member of Congress.
Aliʻiōlani Hale is a building located in downtown Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, currently used as the home of the Hawaiʻi State Supreme Court. It is the former seat of government of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi and the Republic of Hawaiʻi.
King Kamehameha I Day on June 11 is a public holiday in the U.S. state of Hawaii. It honors Kamehameha the Great, the monarch who first established the unified Kingdom of Hawaiʻi—comprising the Hawaiian Islands of Niʻihau, Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi, Kahoʻolawe, Maui, and Hawaiʻi. In 1883 a statue of King Kamehameha was dedicated in Honolulu by King David Kalākaua. There are duplicates of this statue in Emancipation Hall at the Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, D.C., and in Hilo, island of Hawaiʻi.
The Father Damien Statue, also called the Saint Damien of Molokaʻi Statue, is the centerpiece of the entrance to the Hawaiʻi State Capitol and the Hawaiʻi State Legislature in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. A second bronze cast is displayed in the National Statuary Hall Collection in the United States Capitol, along with the Kamehameha Statue. The landmark memorializes the famous Hawaiʻi Catholic Church priest from Belgium who sacrificed his life for the lepers of the island of Molokaʻi. Father Damien is considered one of the preeminent heroes of Hawaiʻi, and was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on October 11, 2009. Cast in bronze, the statue depicts Father Damien in his later years after being diagnosed with the disease of those he attended. Much attention was given to the recreation of the disfiguring scars on the priest's face and his arm hanging from a sling.
The Hawaiian Independent Party, was a political party active in Hawaii from 1900 to 1912, during which time Hawaii was controlled by the United States and administered as the Territory of Hawaii. The Party was established by Robert Wilcox, immediately after the United States annexed the Hawaiian Islands with the Newlands Resolution in 1898 and established the Territory of Hawaii with the Hawaiian Organic Act in 1900. The party was formed to represent and advocate for the rights and interests of Native Hawaiians, many of whom were then inclined to believe that both the Democratic Party of Hawai‘i and Hawai‘i Republican Party were yet incapable of representing them.
Moses Kekūāiwa was a member of the royal family of the Kingdom of Hawaii.
John William Pitt Kīnaʻu was a prince of the Kingdom of Hawaii and the only surviving son of High Chief William Pitt Leleiohoku I and Ruth Keʻelikōlani. As a descendant of King Kamehameha I, he was chosen to attend the Chiefs' Children's School taught by the American missionary Amos Starr Cooke and his wife, Juliette Montague Cooke, alongside fifteen of his royal cousins. At a young age, he inherited the landholdings of his father and his adoptive grandfather including Huliheʻe Palace, but the prince died under mysterious circumstances before his seventeenth birthday.
The Wailoa River State Recreation Area, also known as Wailoa River State Park, is a park in Hilo, on Hawaiʻi Island in the US state of Hawaii. It was developed as a buffer zone following the devastating 1960 tsunami that wiped out the central bayfront district of Hilo.
Hawaii–Tahiti relations refers to the historical relationship between the independent Hawaiian Kingdom and the Kingdom of Tahiti. Relations included one treaty, proposed marriage alliances and exchanges of trade and diplomatic representatives from the early 1800s to 1880.
Julia Alapaʻi Kauwaʻa was a high chiefess of the Kingdom of Hawaii. Her name has been given as Julia Alapaʻi Kauwa and sometimes as Juliana instead.
The Kamehameha I statue is an outdoor sculpture by American artist Thomas Ridgeway Gould, erected in 1883. The first cast in the series, Kamehameha I statue , is located in North Kohala on the island of Hawaiʻi. The second cast stands outside the Aliʻiōlani Hale government building in Honolulu, located on the island of Oahu. Made of cast brass, it depicts Kamehameha I and has become a recognizable cultural symbol for the Hawaiian Islands.
The Kamehameha I statue is an outdoor sculpture by American artist Thomas Ridgeway Gould, cast in 1880 and installed in 1883. It stands in front of the old country courthouse in the town of Kapaʻau, located in North Kohala on the Island of Hawaiʻi. Made of cast brass and painted with lifelike colors, it depicts Kamehameha I, and represents an important cultural and spiritual object for the local community.
Levi Haʻalelea was a high chief and member of the Hawaiian nobility during the Hawaiian Kingdom. He initially served as a kahu and konohiki for High Chief Leleiohoku, one of the grandsons of Kamehameha I. He later became aa Hulumanu in the royal court of Kamehameha III and eventually served as Chamberlain for the court. He married Kekauʻōnohi, the granddaughter of Kamehameha I. These connections to the ruling dynasty gave him access to vast landholding during the land division of the Great Mahele in 1848. Active in politics, he was a member of the Privy Council of State and served in the House of Nobles. In later life, he helped the early Mormon missionaries to the islands by leasing them land and eventually converted to that faith.
Kapiʻolani was the queen of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi as the consort of Mōʻī (king) Kalākaua, who reigned from 1874 to his death in 1891, when she became known as the Dowager Queen Kapiʻolani. Deeply interested in the health and welfare of Native Hawaiians, Kapiʻolani established the Kapiʻolani Home for Girls, for the education of the daughters of residents of the Kalaupapa Leprosy Settlement, and the Kapiʻolani Maternity Home, where Hawaiian mothers and newborns could receive care.
John Tamatoa Baker, also given as John Timoteo Baker, was a Hawaiian politician, businessman, and rancher who served many political posts in the Kingdom of Hawaii, including Governor of the Island of Hawaii from 1892 to 1893. Baker and his brother became the models for the Kamehameha Statues.
Sovereignty Restoration Day is a national holiday of the former Hawaiian Kingdom celebrated on July 31 and still commemorated by Native Hawaiians in the state of Hawaii. It honors the restoration of sovereignty to the kingdom, following the occupation of Hawaiʻi by Great Britain during the 1843 Paulet Affair, by British Rear-Admiral Richard Darton Thomas and when King Kamehameha III uttered the phrase: Ua Mau ke Ea o ka ʻĀina i ka Pono.
Kalākaua was the last king and penultimate monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. The inherited position of the kingdom's monarch became a legislatively elected office with Lunalilo. Upon Lunalilo's death, Kalākaua won election over his political opponent Queen Emma. He reigned from February 12, 1874, until his death in San Francisco, California, on January 20, 1891.
Haʻaheo Kaniu or Kaniuʻopiohaʻaheo was a high chiefess (aliʻi) and member of the royal family of the Hawaiian Kingdom. She was also known as Lydia Haʻaheo Kaniu.
